Reviews

Don't listen to the haters...it's a good sequel it's not as good as the first one and it's not meant to be! Very respectfully done, all previous actors are there no substitutes. Flashbacks are used if you didn't like the first one you won't.like this one. If you never saw the first one some jokes you just won't get! Someone wrote it's too political..comedy is political Murphy has already been political without being obvious about it! Oh and watch out for the trading places hommage ! Honestly good sequel that did justice and honour to the original ! I recommend and I would watch it again for sure.

I walked out of the cinema with a smile on my face, I was entertained watching this movie. Samba is just like the dance, slick, emotional but also fun. Omar Sy and Charlotte Gainsbourg's rapport on film felt natural and wasn't overplayed all actors on this movie, do it justice. The reality of illegal immigrants is not what this movie is about this movie is about hope through 4 different main characters, Samba, Alice, Wilson and Manu, spotlight is on Samba and Alice, but you get a sense that really it's all about Samba and his survival in the urban jungle. Charlotte Gainsbourg gives a riveting performance, as a tortured soul in need of feeding and nurturing, at times filling the screen with her beauty at others looking so raw and in pain, it's all in her eyes and a gentle pitch in her voice, I don't think her voice has changed much since l'Effrontée ( she was 15 and that was 25 years ago!). Tahar Rahim was also very believable as Wilson, he has fun with this role, but never takes away from Omar Sy, good supporting actor's performance from him. The soundtrack is uplifting with the theme song To Know you is to Love you by Stevie Wonder with Syreeta, the melody punctuates the film throughout and you walk out humming it to yourself. The ending is french it's after all a french movie so no "fluffy, Hollywood,let's all live happily ever after ", cheesy ending for Samba. Just a natural conclusion, a blend of softness and release.

If you like musicals and if you find the 60's enchanting than do not look further than this classic French number.

The costumes are fantastically colourful full of pastels the style unmistakable, Hats are worn by both men and women... a different era, the characters even the meanies are charming it all sounds a bit whimsical but trust me it has humour as well as romance by the bag full.

Solange and Delphine transport us in a universe where Love is all around and beats to the sounds of cool Legrand beats,the Master Jazz composer of this musical. Actors such as Michel Piccoli only ever seen singing and acting simultaneously in this film, adds a bit more depth to this cinematic sensation. Not that it's lightness should be taken for fluffiness, if you scratch the script a little you will notice hints of modernity, it is a musical that goes where not even Grease goes in terms of language and Les Demoiselles de Rochefort was made nearly 20 years earlier...The film has pinches of realism in this simple tell of 2 twin sisters looking for love in the city of Rochefort in 60's France of that you can be certain.

I recommend this movie for 2 reasons. First the music, intoxicating Jazz numbers, American influenced yet continental texts, modern fluid dancing and singing...and the second reason is the story although simple it is punctuated by the arrival of meanies such as "les forins" or "Guillaume", even old man "DutrouZ" with a Z, hides something... for 90 minutes the viewer is projected into a family business a family a modern one so a little disjointed and controversial...and all this in the language of Moliere...rent it...buy it...whatever you do try and catch the Demoiselles de Rochefort you will smile all the more for it !

I like Robert De Niro as much as anyone, however the American version of Stanno Tutti Bene reduces the main role encapsulated with such finesse and effortlessness by Marcello Mastroianni that I must insist the original be viewed to compare...I recommend anyone with a genuine appreciation of Italian cinema to rent this movie. Sadly it remains unavailable in DVD. I am advised that it will soon be.

Stanno tutti Bene is without a doubt one of Mastroianni's finest performance,he captures both our eyes and our hearts as an endearing Italian patriarch. The story is simple spiced by moments of pure emotion and also humour. A sombre,sad,almost clown like humour is projected by Mastroianni's interpretation the evident disconnection with reality he is faced with really does tell us that at times "Ignorance is bliss"